ONE PARAGRAPH BILL GATES VS. STEVE JOBS
STEVE JOBS
Born: February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, United States
Died: October 05, 2011 in Palo Alto, California, United States
Other Names: Jobs, Steven; Jobs, Steven P.; Jobs, Steven Paul
Nationality: American
Occupation: Computer industry executive
Founded Apple Computer with Steve Wozniak, Palo Alto, CA, 1975;resigned from Apple, remaining chair of board of directors, 1985; founded NeXT Computer Company, 1985, sold it to Apple, 1996; bought Pixar Animation Studios, 1986; named interim CEO of Apple Computer, 1997; named CEO of Apple Computer, 2000; took health-related six-month leave of absence from Apple, 2009; resigned as Apple CEO, 2011.
Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California; died on October 5, 2011, in Palo Alto, California; adopted son of Paul (a machinist) and Clara (an accountant) Jobs; married, 1991; wife's name, Laurene; children: (from previous relationship) Lisa; (from marriage) Reed, Erin and Eve. Education: Attended Reed College, Portland, Oregon.
Steve Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak revolutionized the computer industry in the mid-1970s when they built and marketed the first Apple computers, designed specifically to be user-friendly desktop machines for the general public. "We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams," Jobs remarked to Cathy Booth in Time. The company's fortunes then flagged as competitors flooded the market, so Apple developed the Macintosh in the mid-1980s, which set a new standard for ease of use. However, it did not boost profits because it did not catch on among businesses, other than eventually becoming the superior machine for graphic design and desktop publishing. As a result, Jobs was squeezed out of his position and founded a new computer company, NeXT, and later made another fortune with Pixar Animation Studios, which he bought from filmmaker George Lucas. His comeback was complete when he stepped in as a consultant once again at Apple and oversaw three product lines, the iMac and iBook computers and iPod digital portable music device, which revitalized the company's image and sales.
Early Life
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to unwed parents and soon adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California. Later in life, he tracked down his biological parents, who had another child, a daughter, whom they kept. For privacy reasons, Jobs declined to discuss them, but Steve Lohr in the New York Times Magazine revealed that Jobs's younger sister is novelist Mona Simpson, who once wrote a book about a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and she and Jobs had a close relationship. Though he kept in touch with his biological parents, Jobs was adamant that the parents who raised him were his real parents.
Early on Jobs showed a proficiency in electronics and a thirst for education. In junior high, he complained that he was not learning anything at his school, so his parents moved to Los Altos instead. While in school, the headstrong Jobs once contacted William Hewlett, the head of the Hewlett-Packard computer firm, to ask for some parts he needed for a class project. Hewlett was so impressed that he offered Jobs a summer internship at his company. Always a tinkerer, in high school, Jobs earned money for college tuition by repairing old junk cars and selling them for a profit.
After graduating from Santa Clara's Homestead High School in 1972, Jobs went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but left after a year and a half. He went to work for Atari as a video game designer and saved enough money to pay for a journey to India in the summer of 1974. There, he embraced Eastern culture and religion, but fell ill with dysentery in the fall of that year and had to return home. Back in California, Jobs moved into a commune for a short time.
The Beginnings of Apple
In 1975 Jobs began keeping company with a group calling themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. It was led by Steve Wozniak, whom Jobs knew from high school. At this time, computers were still too complicated for anyone but dedicated computer aficionados, and Wozniak was trying to engineer a small, simple system that average consumers could use in their homes in effect, the original desktop computer. Wozniak worked on building the machine in Jobs's parents' garage while Jobs lined up financing and grew his dream of marketing to the masses. The prototype that Wozniak executed was the original Apple computer. Their first customer was a local computer store owner, who immediately ordered 25 of the machines.
The first Apple went on sale in 1976 for $700, and the most striking feature was its circuit board. Designed by Wozniak, it could load and read programs from other sources. Instead of requiring users to type in commands in computer language, they could point and click on small picture icons, like a trash can and a file folder, thus putting computers within the reach of non-technical customers. By 1977 Jobs and Wozniak came out with the second generation of the machine, the Apple II, and Jobs began to urge programmers to design software for use on the machine. Before long a bevy of applications were available, from business tools to video games. Soon, Jobs also linked laser printers to the machine, opening the door to desktop publishing.
Apple II sales were $2.7 million that first year, and in three years, growth had surged to $200 million in sales. Before long Jobs and Wozniak (the "two Steves," as they became known), both college dropouts, were multimillionaires before age 30. Two other cohorts, A. C. "Mike" Markkula, Jr., who became chairman, and president Michael Scott, shared the wealth as well. By the early 1980s, Wozniak, while remaining a shareholder, had left the firm and returned to Berkeley to finish college.
As of 1980, other competition had sprung up from IBM, Radio Shack, and Commodore. That year the new Apple III was introduced, but it was plagued by technical problems and ineffective marketing. Apple ceased selling it for a time in order to rework it, but it never sold well. A new model, Lisa, was offered in 1983 for business people with few computer skills, but it could not compete with lower-priced machines from IBM. By this time, Apple had lost half of its market share to IBM.
Departure from Apple
Seeking to regain its prominence, Apple developed the Macintosh model in 1984 to be even more user-friendly, but Jobs made a fatal error by not installing a hard disk drive or offering a top-quality printer with it. Business buyers avoided it, and market share continued to dwindle, which set the stage for Jobs's forced departure. In a highly publicized blowout, the company's new CEO, John Sculley, whom Jobs handpicked for the post, made it clear that Apple did not want its founder to lead them anymore. "In my wildest imagination, I couldn't have come up with such a wild ending to all of this," he commented in a Newsweek interview. Jobs did, however, remain chair of the board of directors.
Other Ventures
After leaving Apple, Jobs invested $7 million of his own money to start a new computer company, NeXT, which aimed to reach the educational market, mainly selling high-end machines and software to colleges. Working with a group of ex-Apple employees, he developed a faster microcomputer with excellent graphics and sound that went to market in 1989. However, the machine never caught on due to its black-and-white screen, and its inability to network or run common software. In addition, though it was slated to cost less than typical big-business workstations, Sun's SPARCstation and others quickly undercut NeXT's price of $9,995.
In addition to Jobs's failure to build a project that would see the same success as the Apple II, it was widely reported that he could be a difficult boss, known for micromanaging, berating underlings, and not listening to others. He even once vetoed a circuit board design because he did not like the way it looked, even though it would never be seen by anyone except technicians. By the 1990s, though, his attitude seemed to be maturing. "I trust people more," he explained to Lohr in the New York Times Magazine. And despite his authoritarian reputation, Jobs deserves credit for helping to transform the office dress code. Known for showing up in sandals, jeans and T-shirts to work, he was one of the first to introduce a casual workplace, which eventually began to change what much of America wore on the job.
Though NeXT was not becoming the powerhouse Jobs envisioned, in 1986 he purchased Pixar Animation Studios for $10 million from filmmaker George Lucas, known for his dazzling special effects in Star Wars and other movies. For several years, computers powerful enough to do the animation were too expensive, but as technology advanced, the prices came down, making the concept cost-effective. Jobs over the years invested another $40 to $50 million of his own funds in the project and by 1995, was seen as a pioneer once again when he released Toy Story, the first-ever full-length computer-animated film. The movie was a blockbuster and drove Pixar stock up, making Jobs's share worth $1 billion. He later had another hit with A Bug's Life, 1998, and in 1999, Toy Story 2. In 2001, Pixar released its fourth animated feature, Monsters, Inc, followed in the same year by Finding Nemo and 2004's The Incredibles.
Return to Apple
In the meantime, Jobs was still running NeXT, and by 1993 it had scaled back to only offer customizable software for programmers, specifically those creating web sites, called NextStep. Jobs envisioned NextStep as "the operating system of the '90s," according to G. Pascal Zachary and Ken Yamada in the Wall Street Journal, but this never materialized. Instead, Microsoft Windows, which mimics the original Apple concept of pictorial icons as its basic design, kept its stronghold throughout the decade. Jobs decided to sell NeXT, and in December of 1996, Apple announced that it was buying the firm for more than $400 million, admitting that its internal efforts to develop an operating system had failed. In addition Apple chair Gil Amelio also noted that Jobs would be brought back as a consultant to help the firm in their quest to provide a viable option to Windows. The company that once kicked him out now wanted him back in hopes that he could breathe new life into its sagging sales and increase their market share, now down to single digits as they were cast as the David against Microsoft's Goliath.
Although Jobs made it clear when he rejoined Apple that Pixar would remain his focus, he soon built up clout at his old firm. By July of 1997, Apple's board of directors asked Jobs to consider the post of CEO, but he declined. They then asked him to step in as chair, and again he turned them away, but did agree to increase his involvement with them. In August he played a pivotal role in brokering a deal between Apple and its rival, Microsoft. The move stunned loyal "Mac" customers as well as many Windows fans, who felt betrayed by the partnership. John Markoff in the New York Times noted that the aficionados of each company were "divided into almost cult-like camps." When Jobs announced at a trade show that Microsoft would invest $150 million in Apple, many Macintosh devotees roundly booed him. The deal was not as unorthodox as it seemed, though: Microsoft, as the largest seller of software programs for Macintosh computers, could not afford to let that niche market wither away.
Successful New Products
Before long the business world was abuzz when it was officially announced in September of 1997 what had been suspected: Jobs was indeed rejoining Apple as an interim CEO, taking the job on a permanent basis a short time later. His salary was only $1 a year for many years, though he also received stock as payment each year. As CEO he came through for them. The partnership with Microsoft led to sales of new software titles, and a new processor, G3, was selling well as of early 1998. In addition by May of that year, Jobs unveiled a new innovation as well: the iMac, a new kind of personal computer that invigorated the company and provided a vibrant new aesthetic in desktop systems.
With its rounded, brightly-colored monitors, the iMac system was popular with consumers new to the information superhighway. Though Jobs had been criticized in the past for his attention to style over substance, the look of the product was integral. It was initially available not in five colors, but "flavors," as Apple called them: blueberry, grape, lime, strawberry, and tangerine (Apple later added "graphite" as well). Unlike the typical system, available for years only in a dull beige or perhaps black, the iMac had a unique, fun appeal.
However, the iMac did have drawbacks, such as the fact that some of the most popular software could only run on Windows, and the machine was not equipped with a floppy disk drive. In addition while similarly equipped machines were dropping well below the $1,000 mark, iMacs were initially offered at $1,299, but the price was later cut. Its ace-in-the-hole was that it was easy to get started. Unlike other personal computers, which required users to connect several wires and often came with little or no software, once plugged in, the iMac was running and Internet-ready in minutes. A success, the iMac nearly quadrupled Apple's retail market share to roughly 12 percent by the summer of 1999, and stock had doubled since Jobs's return to the company.
Subsequently, in a double-whammy, Jobs barreled into the portable market in the fall of 1999 with the iBook, a durable, affordable laptop computer aimed squarely at consumers instead of business users. Jobs was key to the project, dictating from the start that it be rugged enough to throw in a backpack; thus, the outer shell was devised in an unusual clam-shell shape, and constructed out of polycarbonate plastic. One of its other major innovations was to offer a wireless high-speed Internet connection, dubbed an "AirPort," aimed mainly at users in classrooms. The iBook was so sought-after, stores were taking pre-orders in the summer of 1999 in advance of its debut. Though Jobs continued to resist returning to Apple on a permanent basis, his input had been key to their turnaround.
Following Jobs's success with the iMac, G3 and later G4 PowerMacs, which addressed the needs of the publishing and multimedia markets long dominated by the Macintosh, Jobs brought out a movie-making application, iMovie, that allowed non-experts to make their own home videos. In 2001 came the iPod, a portable digital music player that could hold hundreds to thousands of songs, and in 2003, iTunes, which allowed novices to burn their own CDs or download tunes directly on their iPod. Both created a whole new market for the music and computer industries as many tried to copy Apple's success. Apple also devised an application that allows users to make their own DVD discs at home.
As the PC market slowed down, and many of his competitors were already lamenting the death of the PC, Jobs remained ebullient about its future. In 2001 he was instead prophesying about the coming age of the digital lifestyle, in which the computer would serve as the hub of a vast array of home appliances. "The personal computer has the power and the memory to do the things that all the devices we are beginning to use will not be able to do. The software will be the glue holding it all together," Jobs told Garry Barker of theage.com.au.
An Iconic Figure
In Silicon Valley, Jobs remained widely admired, if not universally loved. He had a well-deserved reputation as one of the most demanding and intimidating bosses in the United States, if not the world. Stories still circulate about employees being afraid to ride the elevator with him lest they find themselves without a job when they reached their floor.
Despite his status as an icon of the Information Age, Jobs cherished his privacy and did not reveal too much about his personal life. It has been reported that in his twenties, he had a daughter, Lisa, from a relationship with a woman he did not marry. Though he was not involved in raising her for several years, they reunited when she was seven, and she went to live with him when she was in her teens. Jobs later married Laurene, a graduate student whom he met around 1990 at Stanford's business school when he was there to give a speech. They had three children and lived in an English-style country home in Palo Alto. The family was known for being strict vegans; they ate no animal products and grew many of their own vegetables and herbs. This lifestyle did not prevent Jobs from developing pancreatic cancer in 2004. After related surgeries, Jobs took a month off from his posts to recover from the disease, returning to Apple and Pixar on a part-time basis shortly thereafter.
In April of 2005, Jobs was named to the Time 100, the magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people. In early 2006, he announced his intention to sell Pixar to Disney, its distribution partner, for about $7 billion. Meanwhile, though Apple held only a small percentage of the personal computer market, it was retaining its lead as an innovator in software and digital media. His annual fall product unveilings had become great dramatic events that thrilled tech fans and terrified the competition. In 2005, he announced the debut of video iPods and a new line of thin computers with video cameras built in. In 2006, he announced that entire films would soon become available for downloading on iTunes, and that in 2007, Apple would release a new device, first called iTV but quickly renamed Apple TV, which will stream video files from iTunes to TV sets via a wireless connection, so that viewers could watch iTunes files the same way they watch DVDs. The innovations had the potential of changing the way people buy films, much as iTunes had already changed the way people buy music. In January of 2007, at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, Jobs announced that Apple would debut the iPhone, a high-tech cell phone that can also access the Internet and play songs downloaded from iTunes, that June. Jobs also announced that Apple Computer Inc. was shortening its name to Apple Inc., presumably to signify that inventions such as iTunes and the iPhone, rather than Macs, had become its signature products. The iPhone generated huge early buzz, though some industry observers argued that it faced hurdles because of its high cost, $499 to $599, and because it would only be available through Cingular Wireless.
Meanwhile, the same week, Jobs faced increased scrutiny in a growing scandal about Apple's backdating of stock options. Like many companies, Apple had given out stock options with effective dates chosen in retrospect because the stock had a low value on those dates, making the stock more valuable once it was sold. The company argued that Jobs had never benefited from two stock option grants he received, but some analysts disputed this. Executives at other companies had been forced to resign because of backdating scandals, but observers suggested that Apple would not force out Jobs because he was too important to the company's success.
The scandal eventually passed and Jobs's belief in the iPhone was confirmed when they sold an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 in the first weekend alone. Reviews of the device were similarly positive. By September 2007, sales of the iPhone increased when Apple reduced the price from $599 to $399, a move meant to help reach Jobs's goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. In September 2007, Apple also introduced the newly redesigned line of iPods to similar acclaim. While also well received, the iPods were overshadowed by the hype over the iPhones. In 2008 Jobs and Apple introduced a faster cheaper iPhone, the iPhone 3G, which was only $199.
Continued Health Problems
The continuing success of Apple was overshadowed, however, by Jobs's health problems. When he introduced new Apple products in the fall of 2008, he was quite gaunt and many were worried about the state of his health and its effect on his company. In January of 2009, Job announced that he had a treatable hormone imbalance. Though he vowed to run Apple while receiving treatment, a few weeks later he stated that he was going to take a six-month medical leave of absence from his company because his health problems were more complex than originally believed. Chief operating officer Tim Cook took over Apple during this time period. By early June of 2009, Jobs was sending some emails to Apple employees and it was revealed that he had undergone a liver transplant in April. His prognosis was considered excellent as Jobs returned to part-time work at Apple by July of 2009. Still, many investors and observers were concerned that Jobs's health would eventually force him to leave Apple, creating many questions about the company's future without him. In January of 2011, Jobs took a medical leave from Apple, though he made a surprise appearance in March to unveil the iPad 2. He looked thin but seemed enthusiastic.
Resignation and Death
Jobs officially resigned as Apple CEO in late August of 2011. In a statement released by the company, Jobs explained he was no longer able to meet his "duties and expectations" and the time had come for him to step down. Jobs was moved into a chairman role, and Tim Cook, the company's COO, moved into the leadership role.
Jobs passed away at his home in Palo Alto on October 5, 2011. Although his health issues were known, the shock of his death spread quickly across the media, evidenced by an outpouring of tributes and news coverage. The technology community mourned the loss of a man many people called a "visionary."
Jobs's constant innovations led Business 2.0 to name him the fifth most important leader in business in 2006. It called him "easily the greatest marketer since P.T. Barnum" and a muse for innovators. "Is there anyone in American business today," the magazine asked, "whose style, creativity, and pugnacious genius are more celebrated?" There was no doubt that Jobs and his legacy would live on through his work, and in the generations of business and technology leaders influenced by him.
In 2013 a biographical film about Jobs's life was released. The film, titled Jobs, starred Ashton Kutcher as Jobs. J.K. Simmons and Josh Gad also starred in the film.
More than 60,000 Silicon Valley engineers filed a class-action suit against Apple, Google, and several other technology firms in 2014. The group accused the companies of making a "no poaching" agreement, which prevented employees from moving from one company to another. Steve Jobs was allegedly the mastermind of the scheme, which took place mainly between 2005 and 2009. The suit claimed the agreement cost the engineers money by eliminating competition that would allow them to negotiate higher salaries with other companies. According to an article in the New York Times, Jobs told Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, "If you hire a single one of these people that means war." A $324.5 million settlement of the suit was announced on May of 2014.
Continuing Legacy
Since Jobs' untimely death, Apple has continued to be a leader in the tech industry. In keeping with Jobs' legacy, Apple has maintained its steadfast commitment to innovation, releasing several new versions of the iPhone, with the latest being the iPhone 6 in 2014, and the Apple Watch late that same year. The much vaunted Apple Watch combined the functionality of a traditional watch with smartphone capabilities and much more. Jobs himself was honored again with the release of Steve Jobs, a 2015 biopic featuring actor Michael Fassbender as the iconic Apple chief.
